DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – As Danica Patrick sat high above Daytona International Speedway Saturday night, analyzing the Budweiser Shootout for Fox Sports, she was awed by what she saw unfolding before her.

“I think NASCAR has given the fans what they want,” she said.

Patrick was talking about the wild pack racing that led to breathtaking action and spectacular crashes in the season-opening race, but she might as well have been talking about herself.

For all the excitement building toward Sunday’s Daytona 500, the big buzz is surrounding Patrick, the former IndyCar star who is moving to stock-car racing full time.

Patrick will begin her first full NASCAR season in Thursday’s Gatorade Duel qualifying races at Daytona and will make her official Sprint Cup debut in the Daytona 500.

The most accomplished female racer in IndyCar history, Patrick has emerged as one of the most popular drivers in American motorsports. A mega media star thanks to her edgy commercials for sponsor Go Daddy, her highly anticipated move has been one of the biggest stories entering the 2012 season.

Her arrival is considered a coup for NASCAR.

“Who doesn’t want to see a female driver come in here and be able to race with the guys and do well and be marketable?” says four-time champion Jeff Gordon. “It’s great for the sport.”

“We need people tuned in and watching and she brings in a lot of new fans,” says five-time champion Jimmie Johnson. “She has been able to get our sport onto a different platform, with mainstream media and things that she is involved with outside of racing. I’m excited about it.”

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The big question, though, is how Patrick will do in her first full NASCAR season. She has had only moderate success in two partial seasons in the Nationwide Series, NASCAR’s AAA division. She finished fourth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway last year, the best ever for a female driver in one of NASCAR’s national touring series, but has just three top-10 finishes in 25 starts.

She will run the full Nationwide schedule for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s JR Motorsports and 10 Sprint Cup races for Stewart-Haas Racing in preparation for a full Cup run next season.

How she will fare has been one of the hottest topics in NASCAR leading into 2012.

“That is a good question, I don’t know,” says former IndyCar and Formula One star Juan Pablo Montoya, who has had mixed results since moving to NASCAR in 2006. “She is in a really good car and I think that in a way should help her, but in a way it will put a lot more pressure on her.

“She is in a car that just won the championship; you are going to be expected to run well. I think she might surprise some people.”

Gordon believes Patrick will be competitive – in time.

“She’s a competitive driver, but I think that her lack of experience in the Cup cars – and for anybody, it doesn’t matter who it is – is still there,” he said. “It’s not going to happen overnight, it’s going to take some time.”

Defending Cup champion Tony Stewart, the co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing, is impressed with what he has seen from Patrick so far.

“She processes information so fast, it’s much quicker than any other rookie that I have seen,” he said. “Her feedback is really good and detailed. You can’t teach that, that is a talent that you have to have.

“There is no doubt in my mind that she is going to be good in these [Cup] cars, it is just a matter of how long is it going to take for her to really get super comfortable.”

She will have to get comfortable quickly at Daytona, where drafting in three-wide, multi-car packs is like racing in hornet’s nest.

Patrick finished 14th and 10th in the two Nationwide Series races at Daytona last year and led 13 laps in the July race. But the style of racing was different then, with drivers hooking up in two-car tandems and pushing each other around the track.

NASCAR’s new rules have minimized the two-car draft and forced drivers to race in huge packs. She will get her first big taste of pack racing in the qualifying races Thursday.

She expects it to be a learning experience.

“Oh, wow. Big time, big time,” she said. “It’s going to be about getting some rapport with some of the drivers I haven’t raced with yet and getting a feel for how the pack running is going to go.”

Patrick knows she will have to be patient and earn the trust and respect of her peers. And to find drafting partners she can rely on.

“For me as a rookie and as a young driver without much experience with some of these guys, when I pull out of line to go it’s not like Tony Stewart pulling out of line to go,” she said. “There are people that are probably going to be more confident with him than me.

“I think it can be a little more difficult for me, but that’s nothing any other driver has not had to deal with, and if that’s the case then I’ll just try and be smart and make up the most spots I can.”